Tips To Keep Your Child With ADHD Organized This School Year

by drlazarus on September 6, 2016

Tips to Keep Your Child With ADHD Organized This School Year

The school year is beginning, and millions of kids across the country are now stepping into the classroom to take in the lessons that will help guide them long into the future. It’s an exciting time for both children and their families, but many parents worry that their children with ADHD may become overwhelmed with schoolwork as the year moves forward. In this latest post, our Littleton ADHD Counseling specialists offer a guide to keep your child focused and organized in meeting their educational goals this school year.

Keep a Regular Homework Schedule

One essential element of helping a student with ADHD remain focused is limiting their distractions when outside the school environment. It’s important to keep a schedule in the home so that students know when it’s time to complete any homework that has been assigned. Ensure you communicate with your child after every school day to find out about assigned work, and make sure they add assigned homework to the home schedule on the day it’s assigned.

Provide a Place for All School Items in the Home

Our Littleton child counseling experts recommend parents keep all of their child’s school items in the same place each day. This will ensure the child knows exactly where to place their belongings after school, and they will know where to look when it’s time to begin homework. Having a consistent place for their belongings will also help them to focus on other items and remove some of the stress from getting ready for school and in completing schoolwork.

Emphasize Accomplishments

Your child will want to see that their parents value their commitment to schoolwork. And so you can help contribute to a positive home working environment by praising your children when they get good grades on homework, and when they do particularly well on a test. This will help show them they’re supported and will contribute to motivating them in the future when further work is assigned.

Organize a Weekly Cleaning Session with your Child

Children will bring home many documents each week as they complete their schoolwork. It’s important that all documents are managed effectively within the home and that any permission slips and high-value work are not misplaced. Take the time to organize a weekly document filing session with your child. This can be completed in as little as 10 minutes per week, and involves simply asking your child to hand you each of the documents they’ve been working on and then reviewing with them the document’s importance.

Use Simple Time Concepts and Verbal Cues

Keeping your child on a particular schedule is the best way to help them maintain their organization. Instead of asking them to read “for a few minutes,” tell them to read for ten minutes. This gives them a clear guideline and expectations. Try also to set the process by which they should complete their work. “First, complete this work, and then complete this second process,” for example. This will ensure the child can plan ahead and will help them get used to completing required work by a set process.

Reward accomplishments

After your child stays organized and works hard, reward them with a privilege. The concept, do what you have to do, then do what you want to do works well. If they go a full week of staying organized, reward that with a weekend incentive. Think about what your ADHD child could earn if they are consistently organized for a whole month.

If your child has trouble staying organized during the school year due to ADHD, speaking with a licensed Littleton Child Behavior Psychologist will help. There’s no reason to struggle when help is available. Call our office today to learn more.